T123 RV (not official)
This is actually my first Religious Victory although I have played a ton of games. Although I have not actually executed one before this, I learned a lot by reading up on the previous GOTM reports by DanQuail, Victoria, pahakuutti and others. My game won’t officially count because I played the first 25 turns pre-patch before a long trip, and then started over when Igot home because I was excited about the Pantheon reblance and other changes. I also re-loaded three or four times when I mis-clicked things like chopping a forest into the wrong city because I forgot to swap tiles or moving a unit completely the wrong direction.
Settled 1SW to work the Chocolate early. My Capital built Scout, Settler, Settler, and I then purchased a Builder to speed a Holy Site. Second City on T22 and the Religious Settlements Pantheon was still available on T39 (sounds like the AI does not prefer it). Second city was to the west on coast (could not go east because of barbarians) and made a Buider, Holy Site and then two Biremes and a Cothon for a sweet 11 Era Score (3 for first ship worldwide, 4 for unique unit, 4 for unique district), giving me a T61 Golden Age (Exodus of the Evangelists). Founded my Religion T63 with Choral Music and Holy Orders.
Only had four cities for most of the game, all built Holy Site and I had two high-adjacency Campus and two Cothons for the Cartography boost. I bought two Shrines, four Temples and lots of junk like Water Wheels using the massive influx of gold from selling Diplomatic Favor (over 200g a turn by late game). I spent a good deal of the early game exploring all the coasts hoping for a shallow water route to the other continents, but alas there was none. It took me until T95 to reach Cartography I entertained myself meanwhile by sailing a Warrior and Chariot to all the little islands to pop a bunch of huts (T89 Archery boost from hut, hurray!).
Mahabodhi Temple completed on T88. Stupidly, I promoted Moksha to Patron Saint in my capital and then chopped Mahabodhi Temple with Magus in different city. Oops! By the time I hit Cartography I had about 8 Missionaries and 4 Apostles floating at the coasts. These finally headed east and west over deep water as a trickle of reinforcements followed.
Aztecs pumped out tons of Missionaries (but no Apostles). I completely converted their four cities on T91, but they still had 3 Missionaries on the map and reclaimed their Holy City. Instead of bothering with a back and forth, I stashed a few Missionaries outside their cities until the overseas Civs were converted and wiped them out all at once.
England never founded a Religion so two Missionaries were able to quickly convert them near the end of the game.
Georgia met on T98. They had four cities, some were very large (8-10 pop) so took a lot of charges, but they never fought back so once three were converted they were toast.
Cree met on T100. They were also very easy - their four cities were all converted by Egypt but once I converted them with charges at T107 they stayed mine the rest of the game.
Egypt was another pushover, met them with a scouting Missionary who was far north of the main group on T101 and converted with charges on T117 as soon as the rest of the group arrived.
Scythia was last civ met at T104. They were by far the easiest to covert - my Apostles killed two Egyptian Missionaries in the middle of a cluster of their cities and thus converted 3 without needing to use any charges on T110.
Canada was the biggest roadblock. I met them T100 and converted them around T110. However, after I marched my units north they flipped two of their cities back on T114 and it took me several turns to march back south and re-convert them.
The World Congress actually helped me a tiny bit by voting that units of my Religion get +10 strength. They also declared a Religious Emergency against me on T119, but the game ended 3 turns later.
Some thoughts:
Planning Movement: I sent out a Trader to Antioch to road through the hilly terrane to the west, which nicely cut down on Missionary travel time. However, it would have been even better to just found a city on the eastern edge of my continent and buy Missionaries right there instead of walking them all the way to the coast!
Likewise, some overseas cities could have helped - I actually founded 3 overseas cities but by the time they chopped out Holy Sites the game was over. I should have made two Settlers and sent them sailing way earlier instead of messing around with things like Lighthouses and Traders.
War: In hindsight I think it may have sped up Victory to rush England or Aztecs, especially to capture a Campus or two. I am not used to King, and usually fear Aztec Eagle Warriors. But, they were pretty weak since Aztec was squeezed into a corner with few luxuries and did not have any walls up even at the end of the game. A quick Horseman rush may have yielded nice results.
Science: I wish I would have emphasized science more since Cartography ended up being the limiting factor. Only had two Campus with Libraries (plus thankfully two Science City States or it would have been way worse).
Enhancing Religious Units: I never bothered to Evangelize Belief for Mosque. I also chopped my forests for too early and wish I had saved one city's trees to chop Hagia Sophia. However, I am not sure that either would have actually sped things up since moving the Missionaries across the map seemed to be much more of an issue than running out of charges.
I learned a few things this game including:
1. It looks like the AIs still take the same Founder Beliefs in the same order as before the patch. That’s too bad in terms of the patch not improving this, but at least useful to know if you are targeting Reliquaries or Jesuit Education.
2. Barbarians don’t effect Missionaries. I was pretty sure they would kill them - was this changed at some point? Or, maybe they CAN but the barbarian in question just did not have enough movement points to "condemn heretic"?
3. Missionaries can’t open goody huts. I find this kind of funny given the trope of the Missionary visiting the remote tribe.
4. Akkad, who I met late, looks like a GREAT city state (universal free Battering Ram). Somehow I never saw this one before, so I assume they are a GS addition. I often play R&F.
Thanks so much to the GOTM staff - you guys have provided thousands of hours of entertainment for us all. I loved playing the Civ IV GOTM and am glad to get back into the community for Civ VI.
![](http://"C:\Users\Charles\Downloads\Dido religion.png")
Actually, I was kinda frustrated at how slow I was going around t145 or so, and let it sit for a while. Just picked it up after a long hiatus and finished it today, because thats what I do with XotM games... finish them win lose or draw.
